BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE perceived barriers to communication between police and the media will soon be removed following the outcome of a three-day workshop organised by the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) in collaboration with the US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
The workshop, facilitated by Stephen Davis, President of Davis Investigative Group LLC, who is a former Captain and Public Information Officer (PIO) in the New York Police Department, ended today (May 2) at the Police Training Complex in Basseterre.
Over the three days, Davis held roundtable discussions with members of the local media houses and senior members of the RSCNPF, as well as personnel of various government institutions and agencies.
He was also involved in a walkthrough exercise with the participants in the Newtown and Frigate Bay communities.
This morning, during the final roundtable discussion among the consultant, media practitioners and senior officers of the force including Commissioner Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn and Assistant Commissioner Ian Queeley, Davis recapped what transpired during the three-day session and noted that his findings and recommendations for a better relationship between the police and the media would be sent at a later date to the Commissioner.
Asked by the media for his views on what occurred during the workshop and what next to expect, Davis said, “Over the past two days I wanted to get familiar with the current state of affairs between the police and the media here. And the first two days were meetings with the police and the media. And I wanted to do it together so that if you are going to solve a problem that affects two people…two groups, you want them work together.”
The consultant said that he listened to the issues affecting both institutions and based on his experience gave some ideas and answered their questions. “But there are bigger issues and bigger problems that need to be solved or addressed.”
He stressed that the most important part of his trip to St. Kitts, since “this is a police/media relations in the context of community relations, was yesterday when we spent timeout in the field with the reporters, with the police, talking to people in the street.
“And that is such a big component that I am trying to do today, because the police and the media talking together is fine but there is an end. And the end is always how the community is bettered by those conversations and ultimately by whatever actions they result in. So, I know it was a big draw on the media resources here and the police resources, but it is very important because we had some constructive meetings”.
Davis said he has a wish list that he is going to prepare and that if he could offer suggestions to make things better or make people understand things better, he would feel that he has had some success during the workshop.
He responded in the affirmative to the question if there were any particular areas that came out in the meeting that both parties believe they should work on and there seemed to be an agreement they would do so.
He added, “And by the way this is universal, police/media relations. As you know, I spent four years in the NYPD handling police/media relations, so this is not unique geographically. It is unique industry-wide and it waters down to communication and understanding each other’s roles. That is something I think I have a good handle on…understand the role of the police and understand the role of the media. And sometimes it is good, refreshing to have an outside look, not only in terms of the information and experience but sometimes it turns out the objectivity.
“That I think was the most important part of this…was watching and hearing people talk together. I am sure that I can offer some suggestions and I think it’s going to be productive.”
